We launched our Slow Food Southern Alberta Convivium on April 11th, 2011 and a year later we proudly launched “The Faces of our Food,” a printed directory featuring local producers, processors and chefs! It is also linked to our website. Our Convivium area is consistent with the political borders to the south, east and west, with an imaginary line south of Calgary.

Our inaugural year has been action packed. We’ve spread the gospel of “Good, Clean, Fair” local food at University classes, breakfast and garden clubs, the Southern Alberta Council of Public Affairs, Chamber of Commerce gatherings and an enthused group of MOPS-mothers of pre-school children!

Articles about our Convivium and our members have been published in the Western Producer, Grain News and the Lethbridge Herald and Slow Food events featured on Farm TV, Shaw and CTV. Folks are hungry to know where they can get good food.

Harvest of the Hills Dinner in Claresholm in October and a Slow Food/Mountain Freedom event in Coleman in March were great successes, both sold out. Delicious local food, perfectly paired with Alberta wine, beautifully presented, entertaining stories shared by our producers and evenings of warm conviviality were enjoyed by many.

Fort Macleod library has designated a special area for Slow Food; so far we have thirty books on the shelf and one DVD. Through inter-library loaning everyone in Alberta will be able to access these resources.

A mural honouring the Traditional Wisdom of farmers, the indigenous, women and elders was commissioned by the Claresholm Chamber of Commerce and will be unveiled this summer. This will be an excellent way to share the belief that we must honour this wisdom and use it to inform our decisions as we move forward. We’ve made overtures to our indigenous community and hope to strengthen that relationship over time.

We were invited to the annual fund-raising gala for the Lethbridge Community College and had the opportunity to share our message and anticipate planning collaborative events with their culinary department in the coming year.

We’re also laying the groundwork to collaborate with our regional Cows & Fish Group. This is an organization working to foster a better understanding of how maintaining riparian areas can enhance landscape health and productivity which directly benefits landowners and others who value these green zones. Their focus is on bio-diversity and sustainability. “We’re all downstream” and as co-producers we must all accept responsibility for the health of our waterways and the stewardship of our rangelands, home to our renowned Alberta Beef.

The Galt Museum in Lethbridge invited us to help celebrate Earth Day and share our message in context to farming a hundred years ago and farming today, there was lots of lively discussion. Producers and processors offered samples, there was a tasting workshop and chef demonstrations. Attendance was 552, almost doubled from last year. Young and old alike were part of the celebration!

Our geographic area covers a lot of country, much of it sparsely populated. Medicine Hat hosted “Savour the South East” trade show & Iron Chef Competition – we were there meeting and visiting with more interested folks and making community connections!

We are building a relationship with “Growing Food Security in Alberta” (GFSA), a group ensuring we can grow and produce enough nutritious food in Alberta so our citizens can maintain an active and healthy life.

Upon reflection, our strength comes from a visionary, committed group of producers and co-producers; they know it’s vital and timely to share our message. There’s change here in the winds of southern Alberta – we’re working together and continuing to make connections to help ensure that change will be good for all.

Our membership is about 40 strong and growing, folks are excited to be part of an international movement that believes it is possible for everyone in the whole world to have access to good, clean, fair local food. It’s happening! The pleasure and the people are the two primary aspects of Slow Food that make it so rewarding. We love sharing the “wow” factor of food grown with care and respect for Mother Earth, she wins and we do too!